Age, Biography and Wiki

Lee Bontecou was born on 15 January, 1931 in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S., is an American sculptor and printmaker (1931–2022). Discover Lee Bontecou's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is she in this year and how she spends money? Also learn how she earned most of networth at the age of 91 years old?

Popular As N/A
Occupation N/A
Age 91 years old
Zodiac Sign Capricorn
Born 15 January 1931
Birthday 15 January
Birthplace Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
Date of death 8 November, 2022
Died Place Florida, U.S.
Nationality Rhode Island

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 15 January. She is a member of famous sculptor with the age 91 years old group.

Lee Bontecou Height, Weight & Measurements

At 91 years old, Lee Bontecou height not available right now. We will update Lee Bontecou's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

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Dating & Relationship status

She is currently single. She is not dating anyone. We don't have much information about She's past relationship and any previous engaged. According to our Database, She has no children.

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Lee Bontecou Net Worth

Her net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Lee Bontecou worth at the age of 91 years old? Lee Bontecou’s income source is mostly from being a successful sculptor. She is from Rhode Island. We have estimated Lee Bontecou's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2024 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2024 Under Review
Net Worth in 2023 Pending
Salary in 2023 Under Review
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Source of Income sculptor

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Timeline

1931

Lee Bontecou (January 15, 1931 – November 8, 2022) was an American sculptor and printmaker and a pioneer figure in the New York art world.

1947

Her work was also included in Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women, 1947-2016 at Hauser Wirth & Schimmel in 2016.

1952

Bontecou attended Bradford Junior College (now Bradford College) in Haverhill, Massachusetts for her general education and then attended the Art Students League of New York from 1952 to 1955, where she studied with the sculptor William Zorach.

1954

She also spent the summer of 1954 at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, where she learned to weld.

1957

She received a Fulbright scholarship from the U.S.-Italy Fulbright Commission to study in Rome in 1957-1958.

1959

Bontecou was best known for the sculptures she created in 1959 and the 1960s, which challenged artistic conventions of both materials and presentation by hanging on the wall.

They consist of welded steel frames covered with recycled canvas and industrial materials (such as conveyor belts or mail sacks) and other found objects.

Her best constructions are at once mechanistic and organic, abstract but evocative of the brutality of war.

1960

She kept her work consistently in a recognizable style, and received broad recognition in the 1960s.

Bontecou made abstract sculptures in the 1960s and 1970s and created vacuum-formed plastic fish, plants, and flower forms in the 1970s.

Rich, organic shapes and powerful energy appear in her drawings, prints, and sculptures.

Her work has been shown and collected in many major museums in the United States and in Europe.

Bontecou was born in Providence, Rhode Island.

She had an older brother, Hank.

Her father was a salesman and was involved with the development of the aluminum canoe.

Her mother wired submarine parts during WWII.

As a little girl, Bontecou spent time at the family's cabin in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, where she first experimenting with sculpture, whittling animals out of wood.

From the time Bontecou attended high school, she found herself focusing on sculpture; "I avoided everything that was commercial art. I avoided having to make posters, and I avoided all of these... it was just not interesting to me. But I was always drawing at home, and making little clay stuff and little figures, little – anything that I could get my hands on. And I did enjoy the clay."

Art critic Arthur Danto described them as "fierce", reminiscent of 17th-century scientist Robert Hooke's Micrographia, lying "at the intersection of magnified insects, battle masks, and armored chariots...”. She was one of the first female artists to be exhibited at Leo Castelli's art gallery in the 1960s, alongside Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, and Robert Rauschenberg. One of the largest examples of her work is located in the lobby of the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, which was commissioned by the architect Philip Johnson. From the 1970s until 1991 she taught in the Art Department at Brooklyn College.

In the 1960s, Bontecou's work was hailed for its unique position in between painting and sculpture.

Sculptor Donald Judd wrote that her work "asserts its own existence, form and power. It becomes an object in its own right."

1970

The openness, autonomy, and engineering processes central to her work, were embraced by the Feminist Art Movement in the 1970s and her use of cavities and holes has been read as female genitalia, and the related, central core imagery.

It is an association the artist denied.

1971

In 1971, she began teaching at Brooklyn College.

Bontecou's work was deeply affected by WWII.

Many of her sculptures were emotional responses to war.

Describing her own work, Bontecou said ..." I was angry...all of those- all the ones with the teeth- it was a thing of what that war was."

Both her parents joined the war effort.

Her mother wired transmitters for submarine navigation and her father sold gliders for the military.

Later her husband, Bill Giles, would be a medic in the Korean War.

1988

She moved to Orbisonia, Pennsylvania full-time in 1988 where she continued to work.

There she maintained a vigorous studio practice, but showed infrequently.

1990

She continued to teach through the 1990s, while spending time in Pennsylvania.

2003

She was brought back to public attention by a 2003 retrospective co-organized by the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, that traveled to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 2004.

The retrospective included both work from her public, art-world career and an extensive display of work done after retreating from the public view.

2004

Bontecou's work was also included in the Carnegie International 2004-5 exhibit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

2010

In 2010, the Museum of Modern Art presented a retrospective of Bontecou's work entitled All Freedom in Every Sense. In 2014, her drawings were exhibited in Lee Bontecou: Drawn Worlds, organized by The Menil Collection, which traveled to the Princeton University Art Museum.

2017

In 2017, a major exhibition of Bontecou's drawings and sculpture, including a site-specific installation entitled Sandbox, a collaboration between Bontecou and Joan Banach, was organized by the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.

The exhibition was curated by Joan Banach and Laura Stamps, and accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published by Hannibal (Dutch) and Koenig Books, London (English).

The catalogue contains new essays on Lee Bontecou by Laura Stamps, Curator of Modern Art at The Gemeentemuseum, Joan Banach, and Jeremy Melius, with an introduction by Gemeentemuseum Director, Benno Tempel.